It's going to be a wet summer in Coventry's War Memorial Park once this imaginative new fountain feature is installed.

Work began this week on what leisure chiefs at the city council describe as an interactive play facility which will allow scores of squealing children to activate 36 different sorts of water jets and fountains.

Only Legoland at Windsor has a similar sort of facility, but that is smaller.

Coventry council is spending #354,000 on the safe splash area, including two close circuit security cameras and surrounding landscaping.

When the weather is too cold or windy for the jets to be used in play, they will automatically link together to provide a spectacular water fountain soaring up to four metres high.

Work should be complete by early June or July.

The feature will occupy a site between the current small children's play area and the refurbished pavilion and cafe, due to open at Easter.

The water play site will be fenced off, to deter dogs, and given a rubberised safety surface.

There will be no standing water but the 36 jets will be grouped in five sections designed to appeal to at least three different age ranges, from three-year-olds right up to 16-year-olds.

All the water used will be recycled and treated in underground tanks before shooting up through the ground at random moments.

Cllr Ann Lucas, cabinet member for area co-ordination and leisure, said: "We believe this water feature is one of the first of its kind in the country.

"The plans look fantastic and it should certainly be a huge hit with children from all over the city."

* THE War Memorial Park's original paddling pool was filled in more than 12 years ago after being deemed too dangerous for youngsters and too expensive to keep clean.

It was replaced with a #60,000 saucer-shaped splash pool, which was designed to be vandal-proof, easy to maintain and safe. But it never proved as popular with youngsters and was eventually scrapped.